Machine Independent Storage Idea...

[Alexandre Souza]

> Question: do CF cards support 8 bit transfers though, and are they 
> guaranteed to do so? IDE interfaces have been homebrewed to a lot of 
> vintage machines, but quite often they only support drives that'll do 8 
> bit data transfers.

    Yep, they do.

> It's IDE on a smaller pin pitch I think. Certainly there's no smarts to 
> the IDE-CF convertor that I have here - CF socket, power socket, IDE 
> socket, a capacitor, and a jumper for master/slave. That's it.

    Yes, you are sure

> And like SCSI, interfacing to IDE is mainly a software issue - the 
> hardware tends to be a few buffers and little more.

    This is "not so easy" as you may think. But my three-layers-approach 
seems to fit nicely here.

    Anyone has the protocol of a QIC-80 drive? I'd like to take a peek on 
that.

    BTW, remember: This does not need to be a CF card, it can even be some 
cheap SRAM memory and a serial or ethernet connection... :o)

    Greetz from Brazil
    Alexandre Souza
    www.tabajara-labs.com.br